AFSANet: AFSA Award Winners for 2008

1. The American Foreign Service Association is proud to announce the AFSA Award winners for 2008. The awards will be presented on Thursday, June 19, 4:00 P.M., at a ceremony in the Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic Reception Room at the Department of State. AFSA invites colleagues of this year's award winners to attend. This ceremony marks the 40th anniversary of AFSA's awards program which began in 1968 with the William R. Rivkin Award for Constructive Dissent.

2. Lifetime Contributions: AFSA's annual award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy will be conferred on Ambassador (Ret.) Thomas Boyatt. Ambassador (Ret.) Thomas Pickering has agreed to present this prestigious award to Ambassador Boyatt. Previous recipients include U. Alexis Johnson, Frank Carlucci, George H.W. Bush, Lawrence Eagleburger, Cyrus Vance, David Newsom, Lee Hamilton, Thomas Pickering, George Shultz, Richard Parker, Senator Richard Lugar, Mort Abramowitz, and Joan Clark.

3. Constructive Dissent: This year's AFSA awards for intellectual courage, initiative, and integrity in the context of constructive dissent will be presented to the following Foreign Service employees who demonstrated the courage to speak out and challenge the system. Each will receive a certificate of recognition and a monetary prize of $2,500.

-- Luke V. Zahner, U.S. Embassy Dhaka, will receive the W. Averell Harriman Award for an entry level Foreign Service Officer.

-- Rachel I. Schneller, economic/commercial officer in the Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs, was selected to receive the William R. Rivkin Award for a mid-level Foreign Service Officer.

-- Jeffrey Feltman, former U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon and current Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs is the recipient of the Christian A. Herter Award for a senior Foreign Service Officer

-- The Tex Harris Award for a Foreign Service Specialist was not awarded this year.

4. The AFSA Awards and Plaque Committee select the Harris, Harriman, and Herter Dissent Award winners. Committee members include: Ambassador (Ret.) John Limbert, Chairman; Francisco Zamora, USAID AFSA Vice President; Don Businger, FCS AFSA Vice President; active duty Foreign Service officers Don Jacobson and Sue Saarnio; and retired FSOs Janice Bay, Ambassador (Ret.) Edward Peck, and Dick Thompson. The Rivkin Award winner was selected by the children of the late Ambassador William Rivkin: Julia Wheeler, Laura Ledford, Charles Rivkin and Robert Rivkin, as well as Ambassador (Ret.) Thomas Boyatt, who worked with Ambassador Rivkin.

5. Exemplary Performance: The following personnel are this year's winners of AFSA’s three awards for exemplary performance and extraordinary contributions to professionalism, morale and effectiveness. Each will receive a certificate of recognition and a monetary prize of $2,500.

-- Victor Williams, Embassy Pretoria, winner of the Avis Bohlen Award, presented to a Foreign Service family member whose relations with the American and foreign communities at a Foreign Service post have done the most to advance American interests. Runner-up is Ellen Brager-Michiels, U.S. Embassy Dominican Republic. Judges serving on the Bohlen Panel included: Faye Barnes, President of AAFSW, Ambassador (Ret.) Avis T. Bohlen, for whose mother this award is named; Mette Beecroft, AAFSW President Emeritus, Anne Kauzlarich, Executive Assistant to the President at DACOR, and former AAFSW president, and Leslie Teixeira, Director of the Family Liaison Office.

-- Virginia Gregory, Embassy Caracas, winner of the Delavan Award, which recognizes extraordinary contributions to effectiveness, professionalism and morale by an Office Management Specialist. Runner-up is Tanya Bodde, Embassy Islamabad. Members of the Delavan panel of judges include: Anne Aguilera, chairman and AFSA Board member, Claire Coleman and Elizabeth Roberts-Strong, active-duty OMSs; Margaret Riccardelli, retired OMS, and Ambassador (Ret) Susan Jacobs.

--Craig Gerard, Embassy Cairo, will receive the M. Juanita Guess Award for outstanding service as a Community Liaison Officer who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, dedication, initiative or imagination assisting families serving at an overseas post. Runners-up were co-CLOs Lily Hightower and Lesya Cely of Embassy Addis Ababa. Serving on the Guess Award panel were: Kendall Montgomery, Chair, Kathy Djahanbani, Judy Ikels, former Deputy Director of FLO, Cathy Salvaterra, former CLO Support Officer, and Martine McKinnie, past winner of the Guess Award.

6. AFSA Representative of the Year: A special award for the AFSA Post Representative of the Year will be presented to Julie A. Eadeh, who is the AFSA representative in Baghdad. She will receive a framed certificate and a cash award of $1,000.

7. Finally, we gratefully appreciate the efforts of all those who sent in nominations and hope that posts can recognize their nominees’ outstanding accomplishments in another manner. We thank all those who served on panels this year. AFSA places great importance on these awards, which serve to recognize intellectual courage and outstanding achievement of our Foreign Service personnel. We thank Director General Harry Thomas for co-sponsoring our annual awards ceremony, which is open to any employee wishing to attend. Details on the achievements of this year's winners will appear in the July/August issue of AFSA's Foreign Service Journal.

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